Beaded Key Chains

It's easy to be creative with this bead-iful craft. This activity's a fun trial and error exercise where your child gets to work with her hands. If you're working with very young children it's rewarding counting practice that yields a keepsake. And this is an easy activity that your child can personalize by choosing colorful and different shaped beads to make unique gifts for friends and family, and one for herself too!

What You Need:

Key rings (these can be found at craft stores or hardware stores, wherever they cut key copies)

What You Do:

Start out having your child measure out a length of cord at least 14 inches long and have her cut it.

Next she'll fold the cord evenly in half.

Now, she can position the key ring in front of the looped end and pull the cord ends through the ring and the loop. This attaches the cord to the key ring. Pull it tight! Now you have two sides.

Help her choose a bead to pull both cords through it, pulling it up tight against the ring kind of like the knot in a necktie. Set this aside.

Working on a flat surface let your child pick out what beads and colors she'd like to use. She can experiment with the order and pattern she'd like the beads to be in by lining them up on the work surface along side the length of key chain cord.

She can start beading as soon as she feels she's ready. If she doesn't like the way the combination of beads looks at any point, she can just pull them off and start again! Make sure a couple inches of cord are left bare so there's enough to make a knot; anything less than 1 1/2 inches can be too hard to tie off, depending on the kind of cord you're working with.

Once she's done beading one side help her tie off the cord—you don't have to tighten it too much yet, just enough to hold the beads in place.

Now she can add the beads she wants to the second side, repeating the process until it's tied off, too.

Hold it up and see how it looks!

Once perfected, make sure the cords are tied off with a knot thick enough to keep the beads on and pull it tight so it won't come undone.